Flora of North America species comparison

dark maroon at base; flowering stems 25–80 cm, usually longer than leaves at maturity, 1–2 mm thick, glabous to pubescent.

23–56 cm.

basal sheaths maroon, bladeless, pubescent, sometimes glabrous, others grading from maroon to green on back, light brown-hyaline on front, dotted or streaked with dark red, pubescent distally;

blades flat, 3–7 mm wide, pilose, especially abaxially, sparsely so distally, margins ciliate.

sheath adaxially white-hyaline, summits U-shaped to rounded, often prolonged to 6 mm beyond collar;

distal ligules 0.8–2.5(–4) mm;

blades (2–)3–4 per fertile culm, 6–30 cm × 1.7–3.6 mm.

peduncles of lateral spikes slender, 5–20 mm, shorter than spikes, pubescent;

peduncle of terminal spikes 5–40 mm, minutely scabrous;

proximal bracts nearly equaling but usually not exceeding inflorescences;

sheaths 15–25 mm;

blades 1.5–3 mm wide.

dense or open, green and brown, gold, or brown, 1.4–3 cm × (5–)8–15 mm, stiff, appearing coarse-textured;

proximal internode 3–7 mm; 2d internode 1–4 mm;

proximal bracts usually aristate, shorter than inflorescences.

3–7, distant to loosely aggregated, usually individually distinct, narrowly to broadly ovoid, 7–10 × (3–)4.5–7.5 mm, base rounded or attenuate, apex usually acute.

green to dark olive-green, copiously red dotted, 2-ribbed with 6–10 almost equally prominent veins, loosely enveloping achenes, ellipsoid-ovoid, 3.5–5 × 1.7–2 mm, membranous, base acute or with short stipe, apex gradually tapered to beak, glabrous or less often pubescent;

beak minutely bidentate, 0.4–0.7 mm.

appressed-ascending to ascending-spreading, green or gold, usually green toward beak, contrasting in color with pistillate scales, conspicuously 0–7-veined abaxially, conspicuously 0(–5)-veined adaxially, thin, ovate to broadly ovate, plano-convex or, more often, biconvex, (3.3–)3.5–4.3 × (1.3–)1.5–2 mm, 0.5–0.6(–0.8) mm thick, 2.1–2.7 times as long as wide, margin flat, including wing 0.2–0.4 mm wide, ciliate-serrulate at least on distal body, without metallic sheen;

beak gold, gold-brown, red-brown, or brown at tip, flat, ± ciliate-serrulate or cylindric, unwinged, ± entire for 0.6 mm, abaxial suture usually inconspicuous, distance from beak tip to achene 1–2.4 mm.

distinctly stipitate, 1.7–2.5 × 1–1.5 mm, stipe to 0.7 mm.

broadly oblong, ovate, broadly elliptic, or quadrate, 1.5–2 × 1–1.5 mm, 0.4–0.7 mm thick.

spikes 2–4, 1 per node, distal 2 usually overlapping terminal spike, others well separated, nodding or drooping at maturity, pistillate with 20–45 perigynia attached 1.5 mm apart, narrowly cylindric, 15–45 × 3–4.5 mm.

spike gynecandrous, 15–45 × 2–4.5 mm.

scales hyaline with broad green, red dotted midrib, elliptic-ovate, shorter than mature perigynia, apex acute to aristate or awned, awn less than 1 mm, ciliate.

scales white, gold, red-brown, or chestnut-brown, usually with pale to green midstripe, ovate to broadly ovate, 2.8–3.7 mm, shorter or longer and narrower than perigynia, margin occasionally white, 0.1–0.2(–0.5) mm wide, apex usually acute to acuminate.

= 80.